Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Notes

26. At the beginning of the second century, many churches developed three separate offices or leadership ministries. That was the start of episcopally structured churches:

The overseer (bishop) A council of elders A body of deacons

At the start of the second century, the overseer (bishop) presided over one local church, not a group of churches. Thus he is called the monarchical bishop. Through the centuries, inordinate authority became concentrated in the bishop. Unchecked by the New Testament Scriptures, his role con tinued to expand. The bishop became ruler over a group of churches. Some bishops emerged as supreme over other bishops. Eventually they formed councils of bishops. Finally, in the West, one bishop emerged as head over every Christian and every church. But in the churches of the New Testament period, there was no clearly defined, three-office system. Instead, there were only two offices as found in Philippians 1:1.

The council of overseer elders The body of deacons

27.

Quoted in The Faith of the Early Fathers, ed. and trans. W.A. Jurgens, 3 vols. (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1979), 2: 194. J.B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul ’s Epistle to the Philippians (London: Macmillan, 1894), p. 99. Ibid., p. 95.

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Chapter 9

Philip H. Towner, 1-2 Timothy & Titus, The IVP New Testament Com mentary Series (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1994), p. 123. J.N.D. Kelly, The Pastoral Epistles (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1972), p. 115. . Patrick Fairbaim, Pastoral Epistles (1874; repr. Minneapolis: James and Klock, 1976), p. 70. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon ofthe New Testament, s.v. “anastrepho',” p. 61. Kelly, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 86. George W. Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), p. 156. Kelly, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 75. Although this view seems to have the literalness of the phrase in its favor,

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